Effect:
astringent, expectorant
Areas of application:
Gastrointestinal complaints, diarrhea, dysentery, bleeding, wounds, inflammation of the mouth and throat, mouth ulcers
Parts of the plant used:
Leaves, flowers
Collection time:
June to August
Can be found:
In damp forests and meadows, swamp bushes, stream banks, on the edges of ditch and in reed beds.
Ingredients:
Saponins, tannins, flavonoids, benzoquinone
Other:
The Yellow Loosestrife is a summer green, perennial herbaceous plant that reaches heights of 40 to 150 centimeters. The upright stem is blunt-edged, hairy and often branched in the upper part. The leaves are opposite or arranged in whorls of three or four on the stem. The leaves have short stalks and entire margins. The leaf blade is up to 12, rarely up to 15 centimetres long and 3.5 centimetres wide, ovate-lanceolate and not glandularly dotted. The common loosestrife flowers from June to August. Panicled or racemose inflorescences are found terminally and in the axils of the upper leaves. The flower stalks are about 1 centimetre long and thus 1.5 to 3 times as long as the linear bracts. The flower is radially symmetrical and has five petals with a double perianth. The calyx is 2 to 4 millimetres long and divided almost to the base into broad, lanceolate, pointed lobes. The calyx lobes are often tinged or edged with reddish. The five yellow and often reddish colored petals are only fused at their base. The 7 to 12 millimeter long petal tips are bare at the edge. The common loosestrife is a helomorphic hemicryptophyte, a stem plant, a marsh plant and a deep-rooted plant. Vegetative reproduction occurs through underground runners. (Wikipedia)
The common loosestrife is one of the few species in the Central European flora that attracts its pollinators with oil instead of nectar. One of the most common flower visitors is the leg bee (Macropis europaea), whose occurrence is obviously tied to the spread of the common loosestrife. The females collect the oil with the help of suction pads on their middle legs and spread it into their hind leg brushes, where it mixes with the collected pollen to form a thick lump. This serves as a nutrient paste for the larvae. In addition to this type of bee, pollen-eating hoverflies can also be seen on the flower. However, the common loosestrife is also capable of self-pollination.
In the kitchen, the rather bitter leaves can be mixed with other herbs in various vegetable dishes. The flowers are an edible decoration.